The end of another great day

Chasing the light.....that pretty much sums up landscape lighting. Its great to be amongst natures finest creations, but when that golden light starts to appear...you gotta work fast!

Oregon Coast near Gold Beach

I tried to post this last night but had no signal for internet. This was taken just south of Gold Beach on the coast of Oregon. What a great coastline! I wish I had about a week to explore this gem of a state. I think some of the nicest people in the country live in this area!

For the last day and a half, I was traveling with fellow photographer that I met in the Redwood Forest area. We stopped at a few spots along the way, but this place was awesome! Just south of Gold Beach on the coast was a great beach with tons of rocks, tidal pools, and a great sunset. We traveled up the coast for a while today, but kind of got separated around the 3 Capes turnoff. A couple of slow cars got between us and at a fork in the road, I didn't know of he went left or right. I went left and, well, never saw him again. Russ, if you catch this, take care. Have a good trip and thanks for the company along any the way!

So, this post finds me in Cannon Beach in Oregon. The weather is fantastic. Cool and dry.......a nice change from hot and humid South Florida!

More to come!

Roadside color

As I was heading north about an hour outside of San Francisco, I had this urge to drive over to the coast and take HWY 1 instead of 101. Well, about 10 hours and a million sharp curves in the road later, I arrived at Eureka, CA. There was an incredible site around every turn. It was so hard to not stop at them all!

Slide Scan Project : Another day....another Island

As I finish preparing for a quick getaway that starts tomorrow, I am reminded of a previous trip. This is another image from my slides that I scanned.

Life was a little simpler back in 1992. I apparently didn't pack a brush on this trip, but thats another story. A typical day in the Greek Islands: arrive in the am on a ferry from another Island, get a moped for 7 bucks a day, explore all day, catch some sun, have a killer dinner at about 9PM, hang out at the harbor, hit a late night tavern or cool club, turn in at about 2AM, start the cycle over the next day. A simple plan, but it certainly worked for me!

Wine Country Collage

As I prepare for my next little trip, I am reminded of the last time I was on the West Coast. When I put this together, I had just done a loop of the Napa/Sonoma wine country in one day. Yes, thats one day! I wonder if I missed a few things?

This next little trip has me driving up the coast from San Francisco, thru Oregon, and into Seattle. From Seattle, I am then heading up to the San Juan Islands for a 4 day DLWS photography workshop. I am currently in the process of packing WAY too much camera gear!

Slide Scan Project : Somewhere in Greece

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to embark on another project. About 10 to 15 years ago, I took just about every summer off and traveled Europe. At that point, my company was really seasonal and I had the opportunity for about 5 years in a row. Just me, a backpack, a Eurail pass, and a rough plan...thats all I needed. Live low to the ground and travel.......good times. Anyway, I acquired quite a collection of images and slides from exploring about 15 or so countries from Scandinavia to Portugal to Greece and everything in between. So the project has basically been to review some of these images, scan some of the best, reprocess them using some techniques I have learned in the recent months, and share on my blog from time to time. Maybe this is a part of a late midlife crisis, not sure.....but its kinda fun to look back at memories. I do treasure these memories and the great people I met along the way!

This image was captured somewhere in Greece....I think. Looked like a great one to paint in some drama and texture. Enjoy!

Sunset at Seabring

Although this was taken and processed a while back, it seems like a fitting end for the day. What I remember most about this lake in Sebring, Florida was the water level. On the other side of the lake, there were some nice homes with long docks that had boats on lifts at the end of them. The only problem was that the water was about another 100 yards out from the end of the docks! Looks like we could use some water down here....lots of water!

The Speech

It was quite a memorable event to be a part of. As far away as I was, it was still easy to be focused on every word. Then, when there was about 10 minutes left of his speech, it hit me. I'm gonna be exiting this stadium at the same time as 70,000 other people! The best move I made was hiking up a hill to hit a shortcut on an overpass bridge. It was a main road that was shut down for the event. As I walked on this virtually traffic free bridge, i looked down onto thousands of poor folks that were crammed into a mad exodus from the stadium. As someone who hate crowds, I was in a very happy place!

And now for something completely different.....

As I post this, hurricane Ike is slamming into Texas. My thoughts and prayers go out to all along this coast, their families, and the rest of us as we are about to fork out about $ 15 a gallon for gas!

I would pay good money, however, to see Geraldo Rivera reporting during the peak of the storm surge from a 14' Boston Wailer in the middle of Galviston Bay! Oh yeah.....he might actually do it.....

More on all of this later......

Suite at the Chambers Hotel

I have stayed in a lot of hotels in my travels over the years, but I have never stayed in one that I could see myself living in! This place, The Chambers Hotel, in Minneapolis, MN took the term "Rock Star Status" to a new level for me.

The entire hotel was designed very artistically, like a  New York loft or a South Beach Boutique hotel. There were black wood floors throughout, plasma TV's, programmable house light panels with rack lighting, artwork, and full length picture windows. French linens, a full walkin closet, a leather furniture sitting area, and a bed to die for complemented the bedroom area. The bathroom was complete with its own lighting system, European fixtures, a heated tile floor, seamless glass shower enclosure, a 2' x 3' rain shower, French lavender hand soap, and a full size bath.

Truly one of the coolest hotels I have ever had the privilege of staying in!

Lighthouse in Brazil at Iguazzu Falls

Although the sky was awful and the lighting was terrible when I was at these incredible falls in South America, I couldn't resist attempting to capture the beauty of this place I had traveled so far to see. (Geez, long enough sentence or what!?)

Anyway....

Even though the sun was no where to be seen, I captured many images that day.....all in need of alot of work. I knew when I snapped the shutter on this one as I was leaving the park that it had a future. It took a while, but I figured it out yesterday. Hope you like it.

One more thing. Deciding to rearrange my home office....completely rearrange it...at 9PM might clearly be one of the most incredibly stupid decisions I have made in a long time!